Okay so the Playa is $30,000 To rent, we should all pitch in.
ALL of the work is done by volunteers, (correct me if I am wrong, even if some workers are being paid, how much are they getting? a few 100k at most, for all of them?)

So there is on average 50,000 people at this event, at an average rate of 300$ per ticket, that's FIFTEEN MILLION F***ING DOLLARS!

Someone want to fill me in here?

Even if ALL of the expenses are one third of that, where the hell does the other 10,000,000.00 dollars go??

I love how all of these websites that talk about people "sneaking" in make it seem like the entire event would crumble without their precious money.

What's going on here, why don;t we jsut split the 30,000$ playa by the 50,000 people going......

I mean with the thousands of volunteers I am pretty sure we can clean up afterwords.... isn't that what this is all about?

What he said. Radical self-reliance starts with doing your own damn research. The Port-O-Potties alone cost about a half a million dollars every year. The payroll is over $2,000,000 (the event requires a huge amount of organization, so naturally there are a decent group of paid employees). The cost to rent the playa from the BLM in 2006 was $863,000.

These kinds of figures are large. If Burning Man had stayed a low-budget operation with the kind of massive size increases that the event has undergone, it wouldn't exist.

You can fill yourself in..... it's a massive website (even that costs to maintain) and is very detailed in the how, what and why of Black Rock LLC. Yeah, yeah....everyone loves to hate "the man"...... no, not THE MAN )^(. But if everyone *pitched* in like a frat kegger, you may find you didn't even get your money's worth out of the keg.

What he said. Radical self-reliance starts with doing your own damn research. The Port-O-Potties alone cost about a half a million dollars every year. The payroll is over $2,000,000 (the event requires a huge amount of organization, so naturally there are a decent group of paid employees). The cost to rent the playa from the BLM in 2006 was $863,000.

These kinds of figures are large. If Burning Man had stayed a low-budget operation with the kind of massive size increases that the event has undergone, it wouldn't exist.[/quote]

Okay so you guys can throw insults around, but you still aren't addressing the fact, 2,000,000 + 863,000, well that is 2.86 mil, where is the other 13,000,000?

ZacTM wrote:Okay so the Playa is $30,000 To rent, we should all pitch in.ALL of the work is done by volunteers, (correct me if I am wrong, even if some workers are being paid, how much are they getting? a few 100k at most, for all of them?)

So there is on average 50,000 people at this event, at an average rate of 300$ per ticket, that's FIFTEEN MILLION F***ING DOLLARS!

Someone want to fill me in here?

Even if ALL of the expenses are one third of that, where the hell does the other 10,000,000.00 dollars go??

I love how all of these websites that talk about people "sneaking" in make it seem like the entire event would crumble without their precious money.

What's going on here, why don;t we jsut split the 30,000$ playa by the 50,000 people going......

I mean with the thousands of volunteers I am pretty sure we can clean up afterwords.... isn't that what this is all about?

another uninformed person,

Dude. tickets dont average 300.00 a head. It averages less than 200 with all the comped, reduced rate, staff and contractor personnel there. the playa is not 30k to rent. BLM charges a fee of 4 dollars per day per person in user fees. BM is the LARGEST even nicked by the BLM in the US and generates just under a million a year in fees the last few years. Then you have law enforcement, half a million in poo removal, fire fighters, medics from REMSA, a 200 acre ranch, offices in SF, payroll, taxes, diesel, lights, all the little knick knacks like center camp, an infrastructure, food for the contractors and volunteers, shower trailers, potable water service, grey water service, insurance, lawyers, trucks, tractors, cranes, several Megawatts in power, power distribution, electicians, permits, excavation equipment, clean up crews, printing, postage, IT, and on and on.

Sure a lot is volunteer labor, but a mssive amoutn cant simply be volunteered out. With the ORg talking about going not for profit, you will then get to see their books.

Zac, it's obvious now that you may have a learning disability or literacy challenge. You've been provided with the link to the resources where all expenditures are broken out in line item form yet you continue to ask the same question. Rather than be embarassed and continue to spew mindless posts asking the same thing perhaps some self help is in order... it's never too late to learn to read. I highly recommend starting here: http://www.rif.org/ The Reading is Fundamental folks are great people and they can get you started. The National Institute for Literacy http://literacydirectory.org/ has links to resources nationwide that are easy to use...surely you can find someone to help you complete the form and find those resources. While you're at it have that same helpful person take you to the Afterburn report and find the financial breakdown that's explained in depth...just as it has been year after year.

Remember, one of the tenets of Burning Man is radical self reliance. With that in mind please quit asking us to do research that you should be able to do with ease. The answers are out there...all you gotta do is expend a tiny bit of energy and look!

Kinetic V ~~~~~~I bring order to chaos. And I bring chaos to those who deserve it, wherever that may be.

[quote="ZacTM"]Okay so the Playa is $30,000 To rent, we should all pitch in.
ALL of the work is done by volunteers, (correct me if I am wrong, even if some workers are being paid, how much are they getting? a few 100k at most, for all of them?)

So there is on average 50,000 people at this event, at an average rate of 300$ per ticket, that's FIFTEEN MILLION F***ING DOLLARS!
[/quote]

As someone who runs a *very* small business, I'm surprised that the BMO can get by on as little money as they do for an event of this size. Yes, there are thousands of volunteers but they have to get fed and transported. The BMO spent $2.6M on salaries in 2007? I worked for a tiny start-up that none of you ever heard of in a tiny building in Cupertino, we probably spent $6M a year in salaries. The BMO spent $45K on shipping in 2007? My small business (which you've probably also never heard of) spends $20K a year on shipping.

Finally, (although this is mentioned in some other posts but not yours) stop begrudging Larry Harvey whatever he gets paid for having created this. The engineers and other techies who flood BRC usually earn $100K give or take a little - how many of us can claim credit for creating a successful festival? Give the guy his due.

I think a good majority probably wonder about the same question. Being a business owner and event coordinator, I can only imagine the planning/requirements on this event. Reading the BLM permit was an eye opener, thank goodness I've never had to rent fire engines with specific fire ratings. Wow.... and that's only ONE item on an extensive needs list. Hopefully, with a more open eye on his visit home he was able to look around and take a better mental note of what supports his attendance.

But people ask me why I pay $280.00 tp go camp out int the desert... well they gotta pay the poarta potty guys... (and they do a damn good of keeping those clean even with alla tha assaholes wot throw trash in them...) ... well and some of it goes to art exhibits........and a buncha cool other stuff.....

$280.00 is kinda steap... but I will still pay it..... but it would be kinda fun see a "break- down" of kinda sorta ... where the money goes.....

Heck... I'm kinda trusting... I klinda think that they are doing really cool/good stuff with any excess money......." hey... look at what we did for that school..." yeah... that kinda thing........

Hey... when I sent in for my ticket... I sent in enough to cover "safe " shipping... well ... I sent in $3.00 to much.... cool.... they donated it to something....I have no problem with that.... I would just like to see where it went.....